NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI/PUDUCHERRY, JAN 27
Tamil Nadu added 512 new COVID-19 cases and eight more fatalities to the COVID registry, taking the caseload to 8,36,315 and the toll to 12,333, the health department said on Wednesday. Recoveries eclipsed the new infections with 564 people getting cured, pushing the tally to 8,19,306, a bulletin said.
The number of active cases stood at 4,676.
Chennai’s caseload increased to 2,30,675, the maximum among the districts, with 159 people testing positive.
The metro also accounted for a little over one-third of the COVID-19 fatalities at 4,092 deaths. A 52-year-old man was the only one of the eight victims to succumb, without any pre-existing morbidity or chronic illness, due to COVID-19 pneumonia at a private hospital in the city.
A total of 56,098 samples were tested on Wednesday, taking the total specimens examined to 1,58,08,217.
Meanwhile, the government said it administered COVID-19 vaccines to 8,086 beneficiaries today and in total 82,039 people on the priority list, including health workers, have been inoculated since the launch of the vaccination drive on January 16. In 179 session sites, over 8,000 people were vaccinated– 7,885 COVISHIELD and 201 COVAXIN–today, a release from the department of public health and preventive medicine said.
About six lakh people, including healthcare professionals, are on priority list for vaccination and vaccines are provided free of cost to beneficiaries by the government.
24 new cases to COVID-19 tally in Puducherry
Twenty four fresh cases of coronavirus were reported on Wednesday in Puducherry, raising the total infection count to 38,934.
An 87-year-old person hailing from Sooramangalam village in Puducherry region died of the infection, taking the toll to 646. The new cases were identified after examination of 1,979 samples in the last 24 hours. While Puducherry saw 21 new cases, Mahe recorded three. Karaikal and Yanam regions did not register any new case of infection, Director of Health and Family Welfare Department S Mohan Kumar said in a release.
So far 5.65 lakh samples were tested and it was found that 5.22 lakh out of them were negative. He also said 36 patients were discharged after recovery from hospitals during last twenty four hours. The fatality and recovery rates were 1.66 percent and 97.62 percent respectively.
The person who succumbed to the virus had severe covid pneumonia and refractory hypoxemia. The patient had coronary heart disease as co-morbidity, the Director said.
The COVID-19 aggregate stood at 38,934 while there were 282 active cases and as many as 38,006 patients recovered and were discharged so far.
